Science and Technology: Croatian hospital gets renovated wing to help identify war victims

31/03/2008

The pathology department of a Croatian hospital gets a renovated wing. Also in news this week: Montenegro changes its internet domain and the Albanian and Turkish governments sign an agreement on co-operation.

A clinical hospital in Split, Croatia, has been using DNA analysis to identify war victims across Europe. [Getty Images]

Croatian Science, Education and Sports Minister Dragan Primorac inaugurated on Tuesday (March 25th) a renovated wing of the Split clinical hospital's pathology department, which is equipped with a lab for clinical and forensic genetics. Since 1994, the lab has used DNA to identify victims from remains found in mass graves across Europe.

***

Montenegro began the change from the .cg.yu internet domain to the .me domain on Tuesday (March 25th). The switch to the new domain will be free for all users. The old domain will be active until April 21st.

***

Albanian Education and Science Minister Genc Polo and his Turkish counterpart, Huseyin Celik, signed an agreement Wednesday (March 26th) regarding a joint programme for co-operation in education, science, culture and art. The agreement was signed during <b>Turkish<b> Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's trip to Tirana.

***

The Bulgarian State Agency for Information Technologies and Communication provided free internet access to professors and students at the Telecommunications and Posts State College as a gift marking the institution's 85th anniversary. The agency invited the professors to use the experimental laboratory with new generation internet protocol, which was inaugurated in early March.

***

Only 70% of the industrial companies in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) have environmental licenses, the FBiH Environment and Tourism Ministry Counsellor for the Environment, Tomislav Lukic, said on Tuesday (March 25th). He added that FBiH has issued 400 new licenses in the past year and reiterated that the deadline for their renewal is January 2010.

***

The three-day Cisco Expo 2008 was held in Sarajevo beginning Wednesday (March 26th). The event brought together about 100 Cisco partners from public institutions and the leading Bosnia and Herzegovina foreign firms.

***

Croatian telecom equipment producer Ericsson Nikola Tesla (ENT) has closed a 1.1m-euro contract to supply subscriber line equipment to the Kosovo Post and Telecommunications Company. The ENT said that despite the tense political situation in Kosovo, the IT market has huge potential.

(Various sources – 24/03/08 - 31/03/08)